Lamination Cost and Pricing....

[Notarealsignguy]

If someone wanted a 12"x12" Decal... would you run just the 12" decal and charge the customer for 5 sqft of material?

Generally it's not the only job you're running, or at least it shouldn't be. If it's a specialty job where we're bringing the media in just for the job, then yes...we charge by the linear foot. But if it's our typical media...we always have stuff off to the side. We factor in a sqft cost...then when we're doing a job, we add a wastage percent - One customer ALWAYS orders 31" signs... and the only size media we can use for the job is 48". so we charge by the linear foot for that job - a one size solution doesn't fit every situation.


We generally have 30, 48, 54, and 60" on our most common used medias - We generally run each media when theres 10 or so different orders...We'll rip everything, tell onyx its 30", 48". 54", etc and see what has the least wastage and run it on that. Some stuff like kiosk wraps have a ton of wastage... We throw some cheaper decals (Free upgrade for the customer), or address labels or promotional stickers on the side of any big sections of waste we have.

If you have tons and tons to print then that will work. Personally, I try to wait a day or 2 and run all of my prints on 54” so I dont have to handle changing rolls a bunch of times. Print/cut goes first and signs after so it can be loaded in the plotter complete, cut it all and the signs are still on the roll to take into the shop for trim/mount.
Its time consuming swapping materials back and forth and then having multiple things to laminate rather than 1 or 2 things on a takeup. I keep 30” material for random stuff since its easier to handle but avoid using it if possible. I also dont like stocking multiple rolls of material but Im pretty low volume too.

 

[KeithMan]

If someone wanted a 12"x12" Decal... would you run just the 12" decal and charge the customer for 5 sqft of material?

Generally it's not the only job you're running, or at least it shouldn't be. If it's a specialty job where we're bringing the media in just for the job, then yes...we charge by the linear foot. But if it's our typical media...we always have stuff off to the side. We factor in a sqft cost...then when we're doing a job, we add a wastage percent - One customer ALWAYS orders 31" signs... and the only size media we can use for the job is 48". so we charge by the linear foot for that job - a one size solution doesn't fit every situation.


We generally have 30, 48, 54, and 60" on our most common used medias - We generally run each media when theres 10 or so different orders...We'll rip everything, tell onyx its 30", 48". 54", etc and see what has the least wastage and run it on that. Some stuff like kiosk wraps have a ton of wastage... We throw some cheaper decals (Free upgrade for the customer), or address labels or promotional stickers on the side of any big sections of waste we have.

Currently yes. We keep Banner material in 38 and 64 inch widths. Vinyls we keep in 54" widths as that is the width of our laminator and cutter. Since we run have jobs to run every 3 or 4 days and they have less than 24 hour deadlines, we don't usually have the change to run multiple jobs together.

 

[ColorCrest]

We aren't sure what market price is.

Market price is what customers, as some sort or classification or group, are paying for the product. Understand it is possible to produce exactly the same product to different markets at different prices. Obvious markets are wholesale vs retail. Others might be the immediate local market vs on-line, the fancy mall vs the flea market, etc.

 

[ikarasu]

If you have tons and tons to print then that will work. Personally, I try to wait a day or 2 and run all of my prints on 54” so I dont have to handle changing rolls a bunch of times. Print/cut goes first and signs after so it can be loaded in the plotter complete, cut it all and the signs are still on the roll to take into the shop for trim/mount.
Its time consuming swapping materials back and forth and then having multiple things to laminate rather than 1 or 2 things on a takeup. I keep 30” material for random stuff since its easier to handle but avoid using it if possible. I also dont like stocking multiple rolls of material but Im pretty low volume too.

I understand. And I wish we were that way!

Cheap generic vinyl, Ij35, in49, 180, 480 - these are all in 54 only.

We have cheap reflective, engineer reflective,advanced engineer, engineer prismatic.. High intensity... Diamond grade.. In white yellow orange, 24" 30" 48"...

These are just what we print on each week consistently I spend a good portion of time swapping rolls, it sucks. Main reason I like the 560...quick roll changes compared to a bar system.

We have racks upon racks upon racks of media. We try to do everything within a week.. So we try to save jobs for certain media's, but sometimes it doesn't work and throwing a 30" on is less waste.

 

[Andy D]

Do you have your overhead figured in ?? Insurance(s) ?? What about waste ??

You sound way too cheap. And like mentioned, don't itemize it for your customer, just give them an end cost totally. We usually price it with a printed cost and a lamination cost and recommend laminating almost everything.

I agree, having too much figuring scares customers and confuses employees.

Plus when employees see you're charging $40 or more per hour (some shops have shop rates that are over $100 per hour)
it gives them ideas and makes them resentful... especially these little socialists running around now-a-days.

Make your best guess and set up a square foot, linear foot, or linear yard prices for a few different types of lamination, with a minimum order & have your employees fill out slips of how much time they spent and how much material per project, and you do the calculations to see if you're hitting your profit mark.

 

[ColorCrest]

We use Printer's Plan to do estimating, tracking and scheduling.

Printer’s Plan is really good software.

In your case, I suggest you reach out to their customer service and / or your rep to have them price your lamination process step from your materials and labor costs and goals which you already have to provide. Check their answer against yours. It's important.

Let us know what happens.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

I agree, having too much figuring scares customers and confuses employees.

Plus when employees see you're charging $40 or more per hour (some shops have shop rates that are over $100 per hour)
it gives them ideas and makes them resentful... especially these little socialists running around now-a-days.

Make your best guess and set up a square foot, linear foot, or linear yard prices for a few different types of lamination, with a minimum order & have your employees fill out slips of how much time they spent and how much material per project, and you do the calculations to see if you're hitting your profit mark.

We do time cards on all work and labor is coded by task. Then it goes on a spreadsheet with material costs, labor costs, consumable shop supply percentage, then calculates the job costs, the goal price with markup on everything and the profit at that goal. You can put in the quoted price too and it calculates the profit/loss percentage. I try to get as much as I can without a quote and bill off the job sheets.

 

[Ardor Creative]

After reading everyone's comments I basically just conclude figure out a standard sq/ft price for your materials. I use Shopvox for my quoting/invoicing and production needs, but still have a general sqft price I give to customers for easier quick numbers (generally the sqft price is rounded up). All of those concerns can be calculated by the software, and I actually have two different labor costs. One of vinyl (table work) and the other for machining and fab (higher skill, more consumable parts, and costlier mistakes).

 

[Lindsey]

If someone wanted a 12"x12" Decal... would you run just the 12" decal and charge the customer for 5 sqft of material?

Generally it's not the only job you're running, or at least it shouldn't be. If it's a specialty job where we're bringing the media in just for the job, then yes...we charge by the linear foot. But if it's our typical media...we always have stuff off to the side. We factor in a sqft cost...then when we're doing a job, we add a wastage percent - One customer ALWAYS orders 31" signs... and the only size media we can use for the job is 48". so we charge by the linear foot for that job - a one size solution doesn't fit every situation.


We generally have 30, 48, 54, and 60" on our most common used medias - We generally run each media when theres 10 or so different orders...We'll rip everything, tell onyx its 30", 48". 54", etc and see what has the least wastage and run it on that. Some stuff like kiosk wraps have a ton of wastage... We throw some cheaper decals (Free upgrade for the customer), or address labels or promotional stickers on the side of any big sections of waste we have.

If someone ordered one 12" x 12" decal, I'd send them down the street to the competition.

If it was a good client that I didn't want to send elsewhere, I charge for 1 sq. ft. at my "print rate", and 3.5 sq. ft at my "waste rate". I usually charge 2x cost for the waste. If it's a large run or especially profitable job, I sometimes just charge the waste at cost.

 

[Jester1167]

If someone ordered one 12" x 12" decal, I'd send them down the street to the competition.

If it was a good client that I didn't want to send elsewhere, I charge for 1 sq. ft. at my "print rate", and 3.5 sq. ft at my "waste rate". I usually charge 2x cost for the waste. If it's a large run or especially profitable job, I sometimes just charge the waste at cost.

Rarely pushed anyone elsewhere unless they were an extremely difficult customer that consistently wasted our time. Let them drag another shop down.

These scenarios are what a minimum charges are for. After quickly explaining the number of steps required, reasoning for a minimum, to the customer, I would offer to print 3 or 4, 12 x12 decals for the minimum. The customer sees more value and we aren't dealing with all the waste, win win.

It doesn't work every time, but the customers that leave are typically the ones you don't want. They chose to leave, you didn't push them away creating negative word of mouth.

 

[Kim Stevenson]

Printer’s Plan is really good software.

In your case, I suggest you reach out to their customer service and / or your rep to have them price your lamination process step from your materials and labor costs and goals which you already have to provide. Check their answer against yours. It's important.

Let us know what happens.

How much is Printer's Plan?

 

[ColorCrest]

How much is Printer's Plan?

Good question!

https://printreach.com/printers-plan/

Let us know what you learn.

 

[Norman Clifton]

Don't forget to set a minimum for every process/product in your shop and always assume you have the wrong laminate loaded. In my mind, those are big profit leaks.

I don't print anymore but when I did, everything got laminated, so it was included in our pricing. If you don't have pricing software, you can create Excel spreadsheets and put them on the server so everyone has access. The beauty of them is that you can make them simple to update when your raw material prices increase, set waste factors, change labor rates and profit margins and output retail and wholesale pricing.

I had mine set up with dropdown lists for material selection, and area to figure square feet (you could use linear as well). There are no limits to Excel if you willing to learn.

I have attached a few Excel files others may find helpful. The wrap pricing hasn't been updated in about 6 years but I use the installation and travel all the time.

 

[Norman Clifton]

thanks for these - - much appreciated